Posts Tagged ‘Dish Network’

I got home from vacation this week to discover my Dish Network account had been suspended. Evidently there was a billing issue with the auto-payment system and they had not been paid, unbeknownst to us. My wife spent an hour or so spinning her wheels on the phone only to ultimately be disconnected. At this point she was ready to abandon Dish Network, pay the early term fees, and go to Hulu and the networks for access to her favorite shows. Having followed DishNetwork on Twitter for a while, I knew I’d get better service from their Twitter team. It turns out I was right. Here is the story in my wife’s words, posted on her blog.

I have never been a big believer in Twitter. Sure, I follow a few celebs (hello…Conan is HIL-ARIOUS..) but tweet myself?? Yeah right.

That is until tonight. After spending a frustrating 55 minutes on the phone with Dish Network because of billing issues, and then being disconnected while waiting for a supervisor….I was ticked. Ready to cancel, ready to make heads roll in order to make my point. But my tech savvy (geeky….) hubs send a tweet to Dish Network. They immediately responded, and within the hour someone from the Dish Network Twitter Team called us, and not only took care of our issues, but were so willing to provide great customer service that it blew me away.

So, kudos to the Dish Network Twitter Team. I have a feeling you’ve saved many accounts from going elsewhere….mine included.

Dish Network scored on several points. First, they had a social media team. Second, that team was empowered to do things the telephone support crew swears they can’t do. Finally, the service was prompt, reasonable, and satisfied all parties. It really makes a difference when a customer service team is courteous, knowledgeable, and actually does provide support. While Dish Network certainly could do with a major overhaul of the telephone customer support, the Twitter team is outstanding. They will be my first option if a future need arises.

DISH Network has been heavily advertising its “Enhanced Integration” with Google TV this week. I got two notices in my email on the same day. Having watched the Google TV announcements from the beginning, I knew DISH Network was going to cooperate with Google, but the details were not really known until now.

The most exciting feature is the subsidized price of $179 for the Logitech Revue (see review). Notice I said subsidized, and not discounted. Initially it looked like a simple discount. When I was setting up the Revue at home last weekend I noticed a stipulation: you must sign up for the $4/month “enhanced integration.” Since the unit I was testing was not my personal unit I chose at the time not to sign up since I wanted to make sure I could get the subsidy in the future should I decide to go with the Revue. So what exactly is the enhanced integration all about? Check out the video below, as featured on the Google TV blog.

My first thoughts about the enhanced features is that this is what was advertised with Google TV from the beginning. Devices like the Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TV were supposed to cooperate with your cable/satellite provider and let you search and record with your DVR. It looks like DISH Network will be charging for the service that was supposedly standard. This is a little disappointing.

I know $4 doesn’t seem like much to haggle over, but then again, think about all the subscription TV offerings out there: Apple TV, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD, etc. I already pay for a satellite TV subscription, so why do I need to keep adding other subscriptions? I don’t even subscribe to movie channels like HBO or Showtime, so Hulu Plus and the like are not really an option for me. I am not sure that DISH Network is offering enough value for the $4, especially considering Hulu Plus is going for $10/month.

The bottom line really doesn’t change though. If I want to use Google TV to its full extent I am going to have to subscribe to the DISH Network Google TV package. The whole point of using Google TV is to integrate it with my DVR, in my opinion. I can’t very well do that if DISH is blocking me. The subsidy will reduce the sting a bit though, which helps.

The Logitech Revue is one of two choices when connecting to Google TV. I reviewed the other choice, the Sony Internet TV, here. The Logitech Revue is not exactly cheap, but it costs a lot less than buying a brand new TV. DISH Network customers even get a discount on the device.

The Revue is pretty simple as far as hardware goes. There is a keyboard remote and a cable companion box. Setup is pretty easy. If you need a MAC address to connect a device to your network, you can view it for the LAN and WAN on the underside of the companion box. Other than making sure your network allows new devices, you simply answer some questions about your TV, cable company, and log into Google.

If you don’t have a set-top box or DVR from your cable provider, things get a little tricky. You can watch TV, but you can’t use the keyboard remote to control it. This means you can’t select a television show from Google TV either. You really need a set-top box or DVR to get the full value out of the Revue.

Searching for YouTube videos is easy enough. I looked at some of the pre-set applications as well, including CNBC, Netflix, and Twitter. These are Android apps, but you can’t currently access the Android Market. That feature is coming soon.

In addition to Android Apps, you also get Google Chrome. It is designed to behave just as Chrome would on your computer, but tabbed browsing can be a bit tricky. I Googled it from Chrome on the device, and it didn’t indicate a difference in tabbed browsing. There was mention of a menu button or clicking Control – T, but that was it. I poked around a bit more and figured it out. If you want to view open tabs or input a URL, click the search key at the bottom of the keyboard (it looks like a magnifying glass). You can input URLs here, and if you look at the far right you can see an icon for selecting open windows. This is not only for Chrome it seems, but for all of Google TV, as the home screen is included as a choice.

All in all, first impressions are pretty good. I am going to test it a bit more with DISH Network tonight, so I will discuss those impressions soon. The keyboard is really easy to use, and is far less complex than the one on Sony’s Internet TV. This means it is more accessible to the everyday user, not just geeks like myself who like the Sony version.

If you’ve tried the Logitech Revue, let me know what you think in the comments.